Only God Can Make a Jacaranda Tree

Link: Northpinellas: Beneath the purple rain. I was drawn to this story in the St. Petersburg Times because of the fact that fishermen around here used to watch for the bloom of the Jacaranda tree in order to tell when the Kingfish were going to be around. There are a lot of Jacarandas in Pinellas County, transplants from their country of origin. They are a junky tree most of the year, leaving trash around, and almost nobody plants them anymore. There was one in the front yard of the house I rented in law school many years ago, and I got very tired of cleaning up around it. However, for a couple of weeks a year, Jacarandas have the most beautiful purple canopy of blossoms, that make a purple carpet when they fall to the ground. Nowadays, we have computer gadgets to find the fish, and we spend a lot of time in front of computers. I think that I will go look at a Jacaranda in bloom today.

Comments

[Gino]

I grew up in Pinellas. I have fond memories of climbing the Jacaranda in my grandmother's front yard with a blue towel pinned around my neck. (Yellow towel for my younger brother, for obvious reasons.) My granmother is gone now, and we sold the house, but I drive by every once and a while and reminisce.